Ottawa Redblacks stumble offensively in loss to Calgary Stampeders

CALGARY — Hoping for their first-ever win at McMahon Stadium Thursday night, the Ottawa Redblacks offence, outside of running back William Powell (who had 124 yards rushing), was at times hold-your-nose bad.

They blew a golden opportunity, with the Stampeders also struggling offensively for much of the game before beating the Redblacks 24-14. It’s important to give credit to the Calgary defence, which took away some of the Ottawa passing lanes.

“We just didn’t ever seem to get in a groove and we couldn’t come up with key plays at key moments,” said Redblacks coach Rick Campbell. “It was a messy game where it was grind into the fourth quarter and we didn’t make plays to get it done.

Again, the Redblacks defence was good enough, keeping Ottawa in the game, but they got little help from the guys on the other side of the ball. Redblacks quarterback Trevor Harris struggled in the face of pressure, too often missing his targets. He wound up with just 13-of-29 passes completed for 135 yards before being taken out of the game in the fourth quarter. Outside of Powell, who had 87 yards rushing on seven carries in the first half, the Redblacks looked sluggish when they had the ball. There were too many drops.

“A lot of times the quarterback gets the credit when you win and he gets a lot of the blame when you lose,” said Campbell. “But it is a team game. There are going to be things about our whole football team – offence, defence and special teams – that we need to get better at.”

During the first half, Harris completed just 6-of-18 passes for 36 yards – the longest was just 12 yards. He was feeling some heat, with Stampeders defenders in his face. At halftime, Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell’s stats weren’t much better — he completed 11-of-20 passes for 110 yards, with a touchdown toss.

“It’s never as bad as you think and it’s never as good as you think,” said Harris. “It was a tough night, but it doesn’t mean you have to re-invent the wheel. You’re not going to get too high or too low, you’re just going to keep grinding.”

It wasn’t a good start for the Redblacks, who took a 10-yard illegal substitution penalty before the first snap. But after a two-and-out for Ottawa, the Redblacks defence held and forced a Calgary punt. It was a big win in field position as the Redblacks started from their own 45-yard line.

After a couple of nice runs by Powell (17 and 16 yards), the Redblacks got a 40-yard field goal by Lewis Ward to take a 3-0 lead. Another Ward field goal, this time from 28 yards and and it was 6-0.

A Harris pass was swatted into the air and intercepted by Calgary’s Micah Johnson. Despite a couple of penalties, the Stampeders scored when Eric Rogers grabbed a five-yard pass from Mitchell. The convert made it 7-6 for the home side at half time — a score that probably didn’t seem too likely from two high-flying offences.

During that first half, Redblacks defenders A.C. Leonard, Jonathan Rose, Antoine Pruneau and Jonathan Newsome all left the field with various injuries. Rose and Pruneau both returned. Avery Ellis left the field midway through the third quarter (he later returned). At one point, the Redblacks had three Canadian defensive linemen — Andrew Marshall, Michael Klassen and Nigel Romick to play alongside Mike Wakefield. Another Canadian, Daryl Waud, also got in.

It’s hoped none of the injuries are serious.

There was also a questionable non-pass-interference that was challenged by Campbell. The Command Centre sided with the officials and there was no penalty.

The Stampeders came out running in the second half. But a drive into Redblacks territory was stopped when Rico Murray picked off a Mitchell pass, giving Ottawa the ball on its own 25-yard line. An Ottawa drive stalled near midfield. Ottawa punter Richie Leone, who was exceptional in the first half — placing a couple of his kicks out of bounds deep in Calgary territory — booted a 63-yard single to tie the game with 8:36 left in the third quarter.

With a bit more than five minutes left in the third quarter, the Redblacks started from their own 10-yard line. After Harris was sacked on his five-yard line, Leone punted away for 55 yards — the Stampeders started on their own 53. Holding and offside penalties took Calgary back to its 42. On second-and-21, Mitchell found DaVaris Daniels for a 23-yard pass. Fifteen yards was tacked onto that when Kyries Hebert was given a penalty. The drive looked to have stalled, but Calgary challenged that there was roughing the passer — the Command Centre agreed and the Stampeders had a first down at the Ottawa 20. They settled for a 22-yard Rene Paredes field goal and it was 10-7 in the final minute of the third quarter.

The Redblacks responded quickly as Greg Ellingson hauled in a 56-yard Harris pass. After a 15-yard run by Powell to the Calgary four, Harris swung a second-down pass to Diontae Spencer who was drilled at the goal line by two defenders. On third-and-goal, the Redblacks gambled and Dominique Davis was stopped short.

A big 35-yard punt return by Terry Williams gave Calgary the ball at the Ottawa 37. Kamar Jorden found his way into open space in the Ottawa secondary and Mitchell found him for a touchdown pass. The convert made it 17-7 for the Stamps.

A Brad Sinopoli fumble gave the Stampeders the ball deep in Ottawa territory. Calgary running back Don Jackson ran in for a touchdown to make it 24-7.

With less than six minutes left, Davis replaced Harris at quarterback. He had a wide-open Spencer in the end zone, but the ball slipped through the dynamic receiver’s hands in what should have been a touchdown pass. Greg Ellingson caught a nine-yard touchdown pass.

Romick pounced on a fumble for the Redblacks with 18 seconds left.

Going into the game, Calgary had won all four of its home games against the Redblacks, who came into the CFL as an expansion team in 2014, outscoring them 177-82.

The Redblacks came in with a win in Week 1, beating Saskatchewan 40-17, while the Stampeders had won both their games — 41-7 over Toronto and 28-14 over Hamilton.

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